From comedian to culinary champion!

After a nail-biting finale at the MasterChef kitchen on the Nederberg wine estate in Paarl, victory was comedian Chris Forrest's as he went head-to-head in the finale of the competition against songstress, Patricia Lewis. Chris came out tops in the competition and could be said to have been the underdog who has defied the odds. With just three points separating them, Reuben Riffel revealed that he scored Patricia 21 out of 25, and Chris 20 out of 25. Chris beat Patricia by a mere 2 points to clinch the coveted title and managed to bag R185 000 as well as a brand new VW Jetta 1.7 TSI for his charity , Villa of Hope in Kliptown. However, the other contestants didn't walk away empty handed, each contributing to their charities with the funds raised during their MasterChef journey, which totaled to R500 000. Competition runner-up, Patricia Lewis won R175 000 for her charity, Food and Trees for Africa.

'The real winner's probably my wife because she gets to eat all of it'

"Since the final, I've been cooking quite a lot actually I've started to really enjoy it now and I think the real winner's probably my wife at home because she gets to eat all of it and I'm a lot more adventurous in the kitchen, it's a completely different time in the Forrest house now." Chris told the media at an after-show press conference last night.

While viewers enjoyed the finale on TV, the media and contestants gathered at La Toscana at Montecasino where we watched the show over a delightful dinner and caught the finale, a few minutes before it was announced on TV. Other MasterChef contestants including Terence Bridget, Lorna Maseko, Alex Jay, Merwelene van der Merwe and Lerato Moloi, as well as judge chefs, Pete Goffe-Wood and Benny Masekwameng joined in celebrating Chris's success last night where handovers were also made to the various charities.